Marshall 2203

I bought this amp in Feb 2004 after seeing it on Ebay. The seller had placed it on a 10 day sale and had included his phone number so I gave him a call and crossed his palm with silver... about £450.00 worth of silver to be exact. Be CAREFUL with Ebay - it's fraught with con men and shysters all wanting your money for free.... and DO NOT TRUST PAYPAL - that's even worse. Read the small print very carefully and you will find you're on a hiding to nothing....

At the time I thought the amp might be overpriced, but checking it out (it is a 79 vintage) and having it powered on for some time playing it was a bargain really.

This amp features a Master Volume and was the amp Marshall made immediately before the 800 series, which was updated cosmetically and other small mods. Rest assured, if you can get your hands on one of these buy it!

Here's the main board, and as I half expected from the story of the previous owner it looks near enough original. The previous owner had bought the amp just a year or so from new and just used it a little, mainly at home. By the time I examined it, there was dust on the tubes 1/4 inch thick and it was obvious no one had been inside for a very long time - nice to know.

This is the original sticker and as you can see the amp was made on 16th January 1979 made by the fair hand of Shirley (I wonder where she is today?).

The covering on this amp (I am told) was very rare with just a couple of hundred made at the time and with amps being scrapped and dumped etc then I guess this one is now getting even more rare.

Here's another shot of the main board in place. The overall condition of this amp bearing in mind it's 25 years old is exceptional, the previous owner really did look after his amp. There was a small hole in the front plate of the amp, but I can't see exactly what was in there - it's long gone now and the hole is filled. I checked some of the resistors in the circuit and all seemed fine. I don't see any mods, but this amp is very toppy - in fact I have to turn the treble and middle right off to get a good sound! For me this was too bright an amp for my style which is mainly fast rock with tapped runs.

This amp is now owned by mariano freschi of Italy and I'm sure he will get on with it.